Zara Turner

British actor Peter Howitt wrote and directed this British romantic comedy-drama with a "road not taken" premise recalling the 1921 play If by Lord Dunsany (1878-1957), Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946), and O.Henry's short story Roads of Destiny (1909). Howitt's storyline branches in two directions: Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) loses her job at a classy London PR firm, has a run-in with a purse-snatcher, and finds her boyfriend Gerry (John Lynch) in bed with his former girlfriend Lydia (Jeanne Tripplehorn). But what if it were one of those days when everything goes right? As the sliding doors close while she stands on a subway platform in the London underground, Helen ponders the events in her alternate reality. The plot of Lord Dunsany's If also hinges on a future determined by catching or missing a train. Sliding Doors was shown at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival.

The split-second moments that can take a life down one path instead of another form the tantalizing what if? in this delightful romantic comedy starring Oscar winner Gwyneth Paltrow. Paltrow plays London publicist Helen, effortlessly sliding between parallel storylines that show what happens if she does or does not catch a morning train back to her apartment. Love. Romantic entanglements. Deception. Trust. Friendship. Comedy. All come into focus as the two stories shift back and forth, overlap, then surprisingly converge in "the most provocative romantic comedy in years!" (Stephen Farber, Movieline). Costarring John Hannah, John Lynch and Jeanne Tripplehorn.

A London woman's love life and career both hinge, unknown to her, on whether or not she catches a train. We see it both ways, in parallel.

A London woman's love life and career both hinge, unknown to her, on whether or not she catches a train. We see it both ways, in parallel.